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Core Traditions

There are three traditions that form the foundation of Saint Mary's College and guide us in all we do: the Lasallian tradition, the Catholic tradition, and the liberal arts tradition. These traditions guide our decisions and actions and help us in our continual pursuit of the College's mission.

Saint Mary's is dedicated to an understanding of the whole person, a dedication rooted in the College's Catholic tradition.

Every member of the SMC community is treated with dignity and has license to explore the tension between faith and reason, law and morality, individual liberty and social justice. Not everyone at Saint Mary's is Catholic, but everyone at Saint Mary's benefits from the College's Catholic tradition. We're a welcoming, searching, spirited educational community.

"The Catholic tradition calls us to address the students' ultimate concerns: Why are we here? What are our obligations to one another and to ourselves? What is the meaning of our existence?" - Stephen Woolpert, Professor of the Year 2003

At Saint Mary's we believe that teaching is a tranformative practice, a belief rooted in our Lasallian tradition and the longtime stewardship of the Christian Brothers.

To teach — and learn — in the Lasallian tradition is to broaden the reach of education, promote social justice, and pursue scholarship in a community of equals. Saint Mary's students participate in a transformation of self and society, mind and spirit.

"The Lasallian tradition is reflected in very concrete ways - in availability to students, careful listening, in seeking to find out what's going on with them not just intellectually, but personally, spiritually." - Carl Guarneri, Professor of the Year 1995

Saint Mary's College believes that an education grounded in the liberal arts tradition broadens and deepens the mind and spirit.

Our curriculum offers rigorous training in critical thinking, the careful use of language in writing and speech, and close examination, analysis and discussion of essential texts in the arts and sciences. Our students become disciplined, expansive thinkers capable of exemplary scholarship and meaningful action.

"For teachers, the liberal arts tradition means imbuing students with a love of learning, helping them develop the intellectual habits of mind and skills so that they will continue learning after they leave Saint Mary's." - Gerald Brunetti, Professor of the Year 2001